During the cooking, Annie sang obscene flower songs, and Pirka kept on drawing her pan away from the fire and putting it on again.
Annie asked her why she did that.
"When the water boils fiercely, my buck with the stately lover is running so fast that the poor young man can hardly draw his breath; but when I remove the pan from the fire, he goes along more quietly, and the poor fellow can take breath again."
In ordinary circumstances Michal would have laughed aloud at such superstition. But to-day she had gone through so many dreadful things, and she was so staggered by the actual fulfillment of two of the events predicted by Pirka's cards, that she dared not deny the possibility of a third. Half of the witch's prophecy had already come to pass. She had escaped from her husband's house, and was now awaiting her lover in a strange place. Everything was possible after that.
"He is coming now. He is quite near!" cried Pirka, looking into the pan. "I already hear the galloping of my buck-goat, I already hear his four feet on the roofs of the houses. Now he is springing over the Krivan, now he is running along the Polish Saddle.[3] Hi! Hi! How he is galloping! Quick, my little buck, quick! quick!"
[3] Two of the Karpathian Alps.
Michal's common sense was quite dazed by all these insane proceedings. She was no longer mistress of herself.
"And now it's time to dress," continued Pirka, and with that she took off Michal's peasant garb, and arrayed her in a rosy colored robe. She laced tightly her bodice to show off her waist, and combed out and plaited her long tresses to make them crisp and wavy. Her sweetheart was coming, so she must look nice to please him. The young lady was quite bewildered. She let them do what they liked with her.
Outside the moon had gone down. It had grown quite dark. A silent, starless night, dank with heavy falling dew.
"Now he'll be here almost directly," cried the witch, as the water bubbled away at the bottom of the pan.